Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroshitsuji.

Chapter Fourteen

"We're going to the circus?" I asked, surprise coloring my tone.

Ciel nodded taking a sip of his tea. It'd been only a week since I'd slipped away to talk to the Undertaker and a week since Sebastian won the curry competition. I'd still yet to tell Sebastian of what I'd learned and apparently they had been hiding their own secret as well.

I looked down at the ticket Ciel had thrust into my hand only moments before. The Noah's Arc Circus. Even I had heard rumors about it. Gossip spread like wildfire in society and even someone with as little connections with the outside world as myself had heard about the grand entrance they made when traveling into London and how their show was supposedly worthy of even being viewed by high class society. It did spark my interest slightly, but human interest always puzzled me.

"There must be a catch for someone like you to attend to a show though," I remarked, a small smirk on my face.

Ciel scoffed and looked away from me and around the small tea shop he'd arranged for me to meet Sebastian and him at. Obviously the earl and his butler had been up to something while they kept me keeping an eye on Soma and his servant who remained in the Phantomhive manor on some ridiculous quest to prove to Ciel that Soma could grow up and become responsible. I wasn't naive enough to believe they'd been busy running errands around London, obviously the Queen's watchdog was on the prowl.

And somehow this circus was connected.

Sebastian cut in with a bow as he refilled my tea cup with fresh tea, "The young master has been requested to investigate a string of disappearances of children that seems to follow the pattern of the circus's movement."

I frowned down at my tea, "Most people would brush something such as that off as a coincidence, but you and I know very well that there are never such things as coincidences."

Sebastian smirked, "And you are very correct about that."

Ciel scowled across the small table at us, "You're conversations never make any senses."

I smiled softly and giggled behind a gloved hand, "Because we aren't human, therefor a mortal with little knowledge on our world wouldn't understand."

"You are still making little sense," Ciel's scowl deepened.

I titled my head to the side and smiled a little wider, "That's because even you don't know what controls every little thing in this world. We are all just pawns in a very large game of chess, in which the players are never understood by us pieces."

Ciel's facial expression darkened, "I am not a pawn in anyone's game."

I sighed and lean back in my chair, "Unfortunately this is not true. Whether you like it or not, you are always a pawn in a game that's slightly larger then your own. The chain goes on forever actually, since there is always someone higher up then you. For example you are a mere pawn to the Queen in which she uses to clear her board of all her opponents."

"Tch'," Ciel growled but had no other responses to my words, for even though he didn't want to admit to it, he knew very well that I was right.

"So you wish for me to accompany you to this circus?" I asked lightly.

Ciel gave a dismissive wave, "It would only be for an extra pair of eyes. Being a demon and all yourself you should be able to detect things as easily as Sebastian does."

"Oh, but I fear you over estimate me, Ciel," I explained breezily. "I am no Sebastian, though I do see better then mortals. But I suppose my other...talents may come of use in this sort of situation."

I grinned at the end to place more emphasis on my meaning and Ciel coughed into his gloved hand as he choose to ignore my look. He purposely placed his top hat back onto his head and stood up.

"Sebastian, if we're going to make the show in time we had better be on our way," he ordered.

Sebastian bowed, "Yes, my lord."

I watched as he disappeared from the shop and stood up besides Ciel, as we followed Sebastian's path out to the street side. It was just beginning to get dark, but I knew we would end up being out much later than that. The show would begin just as the sun set and would last for an hour or two, leaving us to travel back to the manor in the dark. Not that I entirely minded, the dark wasn't a problem for me at all.

Sebastian drew the carriage up to the side of the street and opened the side door for us. He offered a hand first to me, being the lady of the company, and then his young master; helping us both into the interior of the carriage which was only slightly warmer than the outside air. I drew my coat closer to me, the fur interior within the coat provided little warmth but the cold wasn't too much for me to handle. As a succubus I could only just feel the touches of it's icy grip, it would be much worse for humans who have more sensitive skin and someone like Sebastian couldn't feel it at all.

I huffed out softly as the carriage jolted forward and we were sent on our way. Ciel leaned against the side of the carriage and peered out into the night passing by as Sebastian drove the carriage faster than he probably should. His one revealed eye seemed to catch everything and anything that we passed by, just as observant as he was at all other times. Ciel didn't seem to know the meaning of the word relax.

"You know, I've never been to a circus before," I admitted softly, trying to break the silence with small talk. "As a demon I never thought of it as anything more than silly human entertainment, but even growing up as a human in the beginning of this life I never was taken to see one."

Ciel didn't turn his head to face me, but I clearly saw his eye glance my way a few times as I talked. He was trying not to show curiosity, but as a human it was only in his nature to be so at times.

"I once took part in a traveling caravan once in another distant life," I laughed quietly as I remembered the heat of the desert and my time as a dancer. "I was nicknamed the Desert Sun, because of my unique coloring and captivating dances. It was pretty much a desert version of the circuses here."

This caused Ciel to turn and look at me, "You're referring to the Arabian deserts?"

I nodded, "Pleasant enough place, you'd get away with pretty much anything there, but of course you'd have to have a high tolerance for the heat."

I broke into soft laughter then, "While I was there I met Sebastian for the first time, though he went by a different name then. He was under a different master, I believe it was a prince if I remember correctly, but he didn't looked much different than he does now. Same dark hair and pale skin that stood out in the crowd of tanned bodies, even I had been sun bronzed at the time."

Ciel looked fully interested in what I had to say at this point, though he tried to hide it behind a blank mask. The attempt was useless because his one revealed eye gleamed with curiosity to hear about the past lives of his demonic butler and knowing Sebastian he probably hadn't been told any of it.

But he wouldn't be able to hear much more at the moment.

The carriage pulled to a halt and I could already hear the loud chattering of a large crowd of mortals. I winced at the sound of all the voices blending together into an almost deafening roar. The noise only intensified when Sebastian opened the carriage door. He too wore a look of mild annoyance at the noise, because just like myself, the noise was all too loud to his demonic senses.

"Is this it?" Ciel asked, after we had been unloaded from the carriage and approached the large gateway.

I glared up at the overly colorful sign above our heads. Ostentatious wasn't quite the word I was looking for at the moment to describe the candy flavored atmosphere of this place. Perhaps gaudy or even childish were better words.

"It would appear so," I mumbled softly, as we pressed forward and made our way into the big tent. Unlike the air outside it was stuffy under the thick material, with over a hundred mortals gathered into the compact space, all talking excitedly as they waited for the show to begin.

"By all appearances, there doesn't seem to be anything unusual but," Ciel observed.

"We never know," I finished, scanning the place as the lighting was dimmed.

A small figure appeared into the center of the ring. For a human sitting as far up as we were he would have had the appearance of a fiery colored blob of oranges, reds, golds, and blacks. To me I could see the odd style of hair the man wore his strange reddish brown hair in and the almost abstract black makeup on his face, along with the anomaly of the skeletal hand he wore at the end of one arm instead of a flesh one.

"Ladies and gentleman," he announced in a loud clear voice. "Boys and girls of all ages!"

Slowly he dropped into a mocking bow as the audience fell quite.

"Welcome to the Noah's Arc Circus."

I stiffened slightly at the dramatic introduction. Simple and innocent enough in just appearance, but I couldn't help but feel a crushing wave of dark memories residing in the figure directly at the center of the ring as he began to juggle a handful of balls and introduce himself as Joker. I couldn't risk reaching for those memories at the moment, but I would mention the feeling to Ciel and Sebastian after the show.

Joker cleared his throat, gaining my attention back to the show, "The whole circus is jostling for a chance to give you a fun show!"

And so the show began.

I watched as the first act introduced was a fire breathing man, but I was none too impressed with the male's large size or the ability he boasted. Fire breathing wasn't too uncommon back in the desert or many of the other places I'd lived. We had even had two in that caravan I had traveled in for such a short time.

The fire breather was followed by a set of small twin children who flew through the top of the tent. I watched as they would hang by their legs from a single bar and flip back and forth to each other. It was impressive by human standards, being that they could have easily fallen to their deaths at the slightest of mistakes, but I just watched on with a board expression.

Following them was a dagger throwing man who looked to be no more than a boy in my opinion. His talent at throwing knives was passable enough, but even I could've done better than him at twice the throwing range.

"No music nor anything particularly special," Ciel stated in a bored tone.

"Indeed," Sebastian admitted, staring ahead of him. "There is no sign of the rumored kidnapped children either."

I nodded my agreement and watched as young girl dressed in a white dress and flower headdress walked across the tightrope hanging above our heads.

"If they don't intend to make a show of the children," Ciel began to hypothesize. "Perhaps the circus's movements and the children's disappearances are merely coincidence."

I shook my head, "Coincidences are myths."

The next act surprised me slightly. A man with scales instead of skin came into the ring and danced with a bunch of snakes. The dancing style itself was familiar to me, but the man was something I had never seen before. A rare oddity.

"And finally the star of our show! The wild animal tamer!"

I frowned down at the scene as a woman dressed scantily in leather and ties came to the center of the ring with a caged in tiger. Such dress would be scorned in society, but yet the crowd didn't utter a word about it, even though I did spot a few upper class women in the crowd. Odd how circus people slipped under the scorn of society.

Joker turned to the audience then and asked for audience participation. He swept his gaze over the crowd waiting for a brave member to stand forth and accept the invitation.

"It appears the finale show has no connection to the children. No matter how you look at it, this theater going was a waste of time" Ciel stated at the same time Joker asked for participation.

Sebastian stood up, causing Ciel to jump and me to looked over with a mildly shocked expression. Besides me Ciel began to question him if he had seen anything, but I paid little mind while I searched over the tent for something that could link his actions to something involving the case. Nothing jumped out. All I saw was the woman, Joker, and the tiger which was now out of its cage...

I clamped a hand over my mouth to prevent my rush of laugher. Oh, so that's what this was about. Ciel was sure in for an embarrassing shock when he realized what I just concluded. Sebastian never changed.

Of course being the only one standing up, Sebastian was called down to the center ring and I watched the entire thing with building amusement. Ciel had no clue right up until the moment Sebastian took a detour towards the rather large cat. That's when in sunk in for the demon's young master and he buried his face in his hands to hide the shame as everyone cried out in shock. I chocked back my laugher as best as I could, but I couldn't prevent a few stray giggles to escape my tightly sealed lips.

The show ended after Sebastian had been bitten by the tiger, not once, but twice. Somehow, in the mist of all the chaos, he had managed to slip away to us where we waited just outside the tent as everyone else had filed out after the disastrous end to the show. Ciel's entire posture radiated agitation and he wouldn't turn to face his butler when Sebastian arrived.

"Who said you could go that far?" He yelled, not turning around.

I giggled softly, but hid it behind a gloved hand when Ciel gave me a sharp look.

"My apologizes. I've lived for such a long time, but it's only cats whose fickle emotions I cannot read," Sebastian explained, though he didn't look at all sorry for what he had done while wearing such a ridiculous smile on his face.

"What were you thinking," Ciel growled. "Being far more conspicuous than necessary-"

Ciel's rant was cut off by a rather over powering sneeze that shook his entire body. I took a cautious step towards the boy, even though I knew such a small thing as a sneeze couldn't cause bodily harm, the magnitude of this one frightened me some.

"You know I'm allergic to cats! Walk further back," Ciel ordered.

"Of course, my lord."

I followed Ciel forward; the boy was clearly eager to get back home and off of the circus grounds. I doubt he liked to be humiliated in pubic and wished to leave before someone could link him to both his name and the mishap of his butler. Halfway down the path I paused sensing that we had lost someone from our party and glancing behind me I realized we had indeed lost Sebastian.

"Ciel, wait a moment," I called to the young earl who had walked ahead of me a few more steps.

Ciel turned in surprise and looked back, his eyes automatically jumping from to the sight of his butler talking to Joker. Before I could blink, he caught the sleeve of my jacket and tugged me behind one of the tents so that we were out of sight of the two talking men.

"Anyways, we've got us a special doctor here, and I was thinkin' he should check you out," Joker was saying. "Come round to the back."

Ciel expression hardened into a grim smirk on his face that didn't reach his eyes which were set in a cold calculating gaze. This was the face of the Queen's watchdog. Sebastian gave one glance towards us, long enough to be able to see Ciel's curt nod, before he turned to smile at Joker.

"In that case, I will."